Summer songs

‘In the Summertime’ by Mungo Jerry. Number One in the UK on this day in 1970…

A Top 10 hit internationally, ‘In the Summertime’ was Britain’s biggest-selling single of 1970, topped the singles charts for seven weeks, and is believed to be one of the highest-selling – and most-played – songs of all-time. Singer/songwriter, Ray Dorset, of course, was also once the proud owner of the most impressive sideburns-and-fro combo ever, I’m sure you’ll agree.

But that’s not what I wanted to blog about today. Today is for all those summer anthems that take you right back to happier times and possibly warmer climes; of time off school, holiday romances, being chased by flying ants (only in your mind) and chasing ice cream vans. There are songs which, with only a few bars of music, can transport you back to summers long-gone in an instant. It’s magical.

I’m not going to try to better Entertainment Weekly’s near-perfect list of 100 (near-perfect because it doesn’t include Don Henley’s ‘The Boys of Summer’, which is inexplicable), but I would like to know which of these tunes holds a special resonance with you.

If you’d rather save it for the chatroom, it will be open tomorrow from 2pm (UK).

Please excuse me if it’s not presently summertime where you are. May these songs warm you if you are in need of warming, momentarily release you if you need to escape from whatever monotony is grinding you down.

Maybe I’ll shock you, but, yes, I like this reggae version of ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’. I’ve heard many covers of this song and love them all, even Avril Lavigne’s. I think that Roger Waters covered it too, but I never heard his version.

– ‘L’école est finie’, Sheila. It’s a very old one (1963) but I like it, very entertaining and innocent. Life seemed simple, so much easier and happier than now. I think I would have liked to be a teen in the 60s, just enjoying and celebrating by singing the end of school…

There are songs which, with only a few bars of music, can transport you back to summers long-gone in an instant. It’s magical.

FEd, you’re right on the money with those statements.

Black Night and Paranoid were #1 and #2 respectively in July 1970.

I can recall going on a weekend expedition from school to an Outward Bound Centre in Pateley Bridge. Canoeing, Rock Climbing, Pot-holing and Camping Out under the stars. A group of us lads sneaked off the site and went into the town to sample one of the local hostelries, even though we were only 15.

I distinctly remember both of those singles repeatedly being played on the jukebox. Oh, Happy “Magical” Days indeed.

My favorite summer song is “Grantchester Meadows” from the Ummagumma album. After that is “Mihalis” from David’s first solo album, although it has nothing directly to do with summer; it was the soundtrack of my life the first summer on my own as an adult.

Ahhh… Summer Breeze originally done by Seals and Crofts is certainly one of those sugary summer pop songs. But if you want something that will really startle you, check out the version that Type O Negative did of that song. If you ever watched the movie, “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” you heard that version during the opening credits.

It’s always interesting when a pop song is transformed into a dark and heavy interpretation.

🙂 I was thinkin’ “Summer in the City” myself, but Ben beat me to it. Such is life.

“Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield brings me back to summer camp as a child in the early 80s. The entire B-52s first album brings me back there as well, especially “Planet Claire” and “Rock Lobster.” This is not summer music, but we used it that way and so I’ll always remember it that way. Someone recently told me that in an interview before his death, John Lennon said that “Rock Lobster” inspired him to make music again.

R.E.M.’s early albums were all summer releases, and since I discovered them just as their second album “Reckoning” was being released, I spent a lot of summers listening to their new music.

There’s a Twisted Sister album that I will admit to liking. After getting too old to attend that summer camp, I went to work in the kitchen there. That summer, one of the other guys who worked in the kitchen liked Twisted Sister and would play that album all the time; I got to know it and, yes, I got to like it. It was my first real job (not working for a friend) and this music brings me right back.

As a teacher I appreciate Alice Cooper “School’s Out for the Summer!” By the time it appears on the radio each year, I’m quite ready to take an extended break. 🙂

Good timing on this topic… I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but a few summer songs that bring back memories for me are:

Summertime Rolls – Jane’s Addiction
Borderline – Madonna (hey, I was like 14 the summer that came out) 😛
Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel (I drove my ’74 Karmann Ghia around with a “boom box” blasting that all summer long back in the day)
All I Wanna Do – Sheryl Crow (I’m not a big fan of hers, but that song always gets me ready for summer)

I remember the Rock Lobster dance! Your description of it is as accurate as it is priceless!

The B-52s helped me to understand that music doesn’t have to be great, or well-composed, to be good; that sometimes you just wanna have fun, and that non-musicians have the same right to perform music as those with the training and skills to be called “great.”

Thinking about it, I really don’t know if the songs and albums I’ve always considered as “my summer music”, are actually summer releases. I guess each of my past summer soundtracks is just a mix of what I was listening to at that precise time of the year.

Dear David, my boyfriend and I were avid fans. My boyfriend took his life in 1997 sadly. His tombstone bears the words ‘”shine on you crazy diamond”.

What am I trying to say?! I don’t know. I guess I’m saying how much I still love your music and you. Fred would’ve been proud to know I had contacted you. It would be amazing for me (and Fred) to hear from you. x

I’ve heard so many pundits using “soccer” instead of “football” lately, mainly former players for whom English is a second language (speaking far more eloquently than the usual mob), who then quickly correct themselves as if only “football” will do.

The greatest and most disappointing band of all time… Pink Floyd. We the fans have made you what you are… and it’s heartbreaking to listen to your music and know I will never again be able to see you play live. At the age you all are at now, when differences are put aside and relationships mean more than nonsense, you continue to feud. One band member passed, and another will die and we young fans will be left to wonder… what would it have been like to see the greatest rock and roll band of all time live?

Blog all you will David… you were given a gift… what I wouldn’t give to have your talent.

If someone is given a gift, are they required to use it in a particular way? I think David IS using his gift, collaborating with other musicians and recording his own music. He is doing what he wants to do at this point in his life. I don’t think that most fans of Floyd expect them to work together when they CLEARLY aren’t comfortable doing so. Do you really think that Roger and David are going to say, “Hmmm, we no longer like to work together, but WE WERE GIVEN A GIFT….”

David Byrne was once asked when he would reform Talking Heads. He replied that this was like saying, “You’re doing well in your current marriage, but when are you getting back together with your first wife?” Both Davids (Byrne and Gilmour) had great success with their former bands, and now they have moved on to something else. We should be happy for them, and glad that they left us with back catalogues so that we can hear their earlier music for ourselves. That is their gift to us.

One final thought: Last time Led Zeppelin played together, it sounded terrible because their hearts were not in it anymore. Same with The Who. You can’t go back, and sometimes it is unwise to try.